YouTube: Don't be Evil.

Your words, not ours. The recent changes to YouTube, as well as revelations about Google's ever-weakining stance on user privacy, seem to contravene entirely the mantra that once characterised your company.

YouTube's Google+ Comments

You simply must know that this isn't working. Quite how you thought it would work is baffling. If you're confused as to how broken comments are, and how negative the impact that your decisions are having on the community, Boogie2988 eloquently sums it up . We understand you're desperate to push Google+ down our throats, but the means don't justify the (already unappealing) end.

Content ID or "Biting the Hand That Feeds You"

We understand that copyright is something you have to be aware of and constantly, actively deal with. We really do. But some of the decision you've made will quite literally ruin lives, put people out of work, and damage an entire industry in their wake.

Content creators have been making you money for years because you promised them a living in exchange for their creations. In any other industry, would it be acceptable to, at precisely no notice, pull that deal from under their feet? Destroy their livelihood? Freeze an entire industry because of lazy, ineffective and broad attempts at placating copyright holders, often not even the actual copyright holder.

With your unannounced, barely justified, and underhanded changes to the Content ID system, you are singlehandedly stifling creativity, preventing aspiring and up-and-coming YouTubers from ever fulfilling their dreams (and, you know, making you money), and stabbing in the back those content creators who have been and continue to be vital to your success.

Let's Plays, Reviews, Playthroughs, Interviews: these benefit the copyright holder indescribably. Ask Notch if unsolicited, monetised footage of his indie game (you may have heard of it) damaged his business. For many, watching a favourite YouTuber playing a game is integral to the buying process: creating this extra hoop through which we have to jump is an extra revenue stream you'll be helping to cut-off.

"Why are so many claims coming from third parties with no apparent ties to game publishers? Why did YouTube enact this change much sooner than the January date it initially told Maker Studios? More philosophically, why would game publishers want to tear down a system that provides incalculably valuable exposure for their products?"

So come on, Google. Come on, YouTube.Talk to us, talk to your content creators, don't stifle new talent, and don't force us to take our business elsewhere. It's only a matter of time unless you stop beingevil.

Letter to

CEO GoogleLarry Page

CEO of YouTube, VP of Video at GoogleSalar Kamangar

Don't be Evil.

Come clean with a proper statement about the decisions you're taking to damage YouTube's future and the industries and people it supports, with clear and precise reasons behind them. Or reverse the changes you've made to do so.